Broken water main knocks El Segundo post office out of service for months

El Segundo >> A broken water main flooded the city’s post office, rendering the facility unusable and forcing customers to use the Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach locations for months until repairs can be made, postal officials said Friday.

The Fire Department red-tagged the post office at 2130 N. Mariposa Ave. on Thursday after the pipe broke underneath the building, flooding the post office with water and mud, undermining the structure and leaving the ground unstable.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Richard Maher said all of the mail was removed from the facility, which houses delivery operations for El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, and the carriers had already left for their routes when the flooding occurred.

“People will get their mail,” Maher said. “But the other services — P.O. boxes, bulk business and notified mail — will be at other locations.”

P.O. box mail and caller service mail will be available at the Manhattan Beach post office at 1007 N. Sepulveda Blvd. P.O. box mail is available on the rear dock of the Manhattan Beach post office from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Customers must bring photo identification to collect their mail. Caller service large-volume business customers can collect their mail at the usual time at the Manhattan Beach post office back dock.

Accountable mail that requires a signature or is too large for mailboxes also will be available at that location.

Customers who receive an attempted delivery notice from their letter carrier have the option of scheduling a redelivery or picking it up. Information on options and pick-up times can be found on the notice.

The El Segundo bulk business mail operation has been relocated to the Redondo Beach post office at 1201 N. Catalina Ave., which accepts mailings from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Since the damage to the El Segundo office was mostly at the rear of the building, post office box and retail operations might resume in a few months, Maher said. USPS is waiting for engineers to determine the extent of the damage.

“At this point in time, there are no operations out of that facility,” he said. “But there is no impact to letter carrier delivery.”